Keeping progress...

Gz412326

I've finally cracked 170 (PT63) for the first time on a fully timed 5 section test. This is an outlier for me by about 3-4 points but of course I want to keep my score moving this direction. Is there anything specific I can do to keep moving the needle this way? I work full time so I can only take 2-3 PTs a week. Is that enough to make progress my the June exam?

emli1000

Congrats! Continue drilling/BR. Repeat those old questions that you once got wrong.

alexroark5

@Checkmate it is much more difficult to come across gains once you start scoring higher up in the percentiles. Going from 150 to 160 is a lot easier than going from 165 to 170. The good news is that it's not as hard to maintain your level once you get there. You just need to keep practicing old questions from each of the sections LR, LG, RC of past PTs to stay sharp.

In terms of continuing to improve, you need to continue to fine tune your fundamentals. Get faster at what you are slow at, and also, get faster at what you are already fast at. Continue to blind review and continue to track your errors in reasoning. Also keep up a healthy lifestyle (eat right, work out once in a while, get sleep, etc).

Once I finally got to the point where I was consitently scoring over 165 I found that improvements were much harder to come by. Don't be discouraged if you find yourself plateauing for a bit. You have to be patient and continue to claw your way to the top. Good luck!

2 PTs a week I've found to be plenty, supplemented with days of reviewing and drilling in between. I found that 3 PTs was just a bit too much to retain all the lessons learned from mistakes.

2PTs a week for you will allow you to take about 14 more tests. Considering you already hit 170 on a properly timed exam, that should be plenty as long as you BR properly etc.

nicole.hopkins

@alexroark5 said:
work out once in a while

Hah—yes, and don't beat yourself up for not doing 2-a-days 5x per week ... Be grateful for the workouts you do and forget about the ones you swap out for training your LSAT brain.

Going from 150 to 160 is a lot easier than going from 165 to 170. The good news is that it's not as hard to maintain your level once you get there. [...]
In terms of continuing to improve, you need to continue to fine tune your fundamentals.

And @alexroark5 , it's like you've read my mind. Once I got above 165, I was consistently 165-low 170's but the gains stopped coming in spite of even better efforts, etc. (and it was not the result of burnout). Then I read @"Jonathan Wang" 's excellent article [ http://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/2584/why-knowledge-is-not-enough ] and realized what was happening. Talking to folks from the BR groups (won't name names but feel free to jump in ) who are true top scorers (consistently 175+) shared the same plateau experience, and I believe it's the kind of work in Wang's article that ultimately makes the difference. Slowly, over a long period of time: that's ultimately why I decided not to take in June.

Gotta marinate in all the LSAT wisdom and fundamentals. And ... BR groups! Just sayin'!